July 21, 2002: In our last update we stated that we should know whether or not The Fountain would or wouldn't be happening, soon. We all kept our fingers crossed, and we got lucky...

THE FOUNTAIN.Aronofsky's scifi film will be filming in Sydney Australia , according to Australian newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Sun-Herald. Pre-production is even supposed to start in Syndey next week, states an 'insider' for The Telegraph. Although the articles do contradict each other in a couple of places, they both mention that the film will be shooting at Fox Studios in Sydney and that Pitt was unhappy with shooting in Gold Coast, the film's previously scheduled shooting. The Sun Herald quotes an 'insider' as saying, "The truth is, the decision has nothing to do with financial stuff. Brad Pitt couldn't bear to live in Queensland and insisted on living in Sydney."
The Sun-Herald mentions that the film will have a budget of $70 million, while The Daily Telegraph states that it will have a budget of $100 million. (This is the same figure that Variety's Michael Flemming is now reporting.)
The last sentence of the Telegraph article states, "The movie will also star Johnny Depp." This is suprising as we have never heard this rumor, and already know that the film will star Pitt, Blanchett, Burstyn, and Gullette. The adding of an A-star at the last minute seems very likely to be false, and should be considered rumor for the time being.
(Thanks to 'Victoria' and 'Ngaire')

You guys asked for it, and now after scouting the net for pics of Brad Pitt with his shaggy beard he is growing for The Fountain, I came accross a few good images. Click 'em to enlarge:

BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
In the latest Entertainment Weekly there is a two-page story on Wolfgang Peterson's Batman/Superman film. However, the article does happen to mention that Warner Bros. still has Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year One in "the pipeline". Peterson then mentions that his Batman/Superman flick would merely be "first out of the gate."
If indeed The Fountain is going into production soon, it could suggest that Darren's suspected 'falling out' with Warner Bros. (backed up by the article below) may indeed be just assumption, and not true. This most likely means his involvement with the Bat-film still has a good chance of happening. Still, only time will tell...

DARREN'S NEW AGENT.
According to Michael Flemming's "Dish" column in Variety, Darren now is being repped by CAA. Here's a quote from the article:

Here's the hard part of agenting: You put a director like Darren Aronofsky into the Brad Pitt starrer "The Fountain" and into "Batman: Year One," and he still leaves. The helmer, who established himself with "Requiem for a Dream," signed with CAA. He's still waiting to see if Warner Bros. will pony up for his Pitt pic, which has a budget north of $100 million. He had been repped by ICM.